Dual Cultivation God Returns - Chapter 1040 -

“Protect the Young Master!”, at that moment, Steward Lee suddenly shouted while turning, his eyes looking toward the outer perimeter of their defenses.

Figures of cultivators appeared from the previously quaint-feeling and unpopulated-looking surroundings, sprinting toward them. There were about a dozen for now, but more could be seen in the distance.

“Halt! Don’t come near!” the warriors in armor instantly drew the bows they already held in hand, and shot a few warning shots to signal a perimeter they did not allow others to cross.

This stopped the people approaching, but it was clearly only a little hesitation while they were still low in numbers, not a complete abandonment of attempts.

“This is the fortune of our Crimson Arrow Manor! We will not allow you to interfere! Go back!”, Steward Lee’s voice, powered by Spiritual Qi reached the cultivators.

“Hehe, we just want to take a closer look!”

“Yeah, what’s wrong with trying to see such a rare thing?!”

There was laughter as more and more people appeared from the wilderness, and it felt like the surroundings themselves became alive because there were eyes of those who did not show themselves at this point.

“I order you to disperse, or we will start taking measures! You will become enemies with our Crimson Arrow Manor!”, Steward Lee shouted, but the crowd became more and more rowdy with numbers.

There now appeared instigating voices of those who didn’t want to go first, but were more than willing to take advantage of the crowd.

“Hahaha! When the Seed of the Dao descends it is the fortune of those who can obtain it!”

“The one who summons it is not a rightful owner, only the one who gains it!!!”

“Blame your luck to summon it so publicly!”

“Since the Heavenly Daos sent it down in this situation, the right of owning it was meant to be contested! It is fate! It is the will of the Heavenly Daos!”

“That’s right! Don’t you think you are being selfish in trying to hog it?! Let’s all compete for it!”

The cultivators that started suddenly swarming the place like locusts all had eyes shining with greed.

And then a few shadows flew out of the crowd and toward the Crimson Arrow Manor, instantly receiving a barrage of arrows that killed them.

This, however, served as a trigger, as the whole place descended into chaos.

“Defend positions! Do not let these scumbags near!”, Steward Lee commanded.

The outsiders continued trying to approach despite arrows sent out by warriors of the Crimson Arrow Manor making some of them stop to defend, injuring some, and killing some.

This previously seemingly unpopulated place suddenly showed its true colors as silhouettes were approaching from all directions.

At this time of outside threat, all inside factions of the Crimson Arrow Manor dropped their differences, turning to move closer to the outer perimeter and taking out their bows to help the defenders.

That left the two young men alone in the protective encirclement.

And it was at that moment, that Steward Lee had a bad premonition, turning his head back to the two heirs, “Young Master Hao! Don’t!!!”

He wanted to turn and rush in that direction, but spotted a man in a cloak with a similar cultivation to his own fly over with incredible speed, forced to go intercept him, “Curses!!! Someone stop Young Master Hao…!!!”

But he knew there was no one with free hands as they were managing a desperate defense. And no one close enough either.

“I-it was surely meant for me… there must’ve been a mistake”, meanwhile, left completely alone, Jian Hao approached his younger brother with obsessed-looking eyes, reflecting the light of the small glowing ‘seed’ – that now descended to only 1.5 meters above Jian Yu’s head – muttering under his nose in a slightly incoherent way.

“How unsightly”, suddenly, a quiet and calm voice, but with a biting iciness in the tone, spoke out nearby, and then a woman with a mask made of ice on her face, appeared right in front of him as he felt a chill in the air, and then a gust of frost forced him to take a few steps back, the ground under his feet freezing over, “It is not meant for you”

“W-who are you! Out of the way!!!”, Jian Hao stopped in his tracks, and wildly swiped with his arm to the side to gesture the stranger to move as a short sword appeared in his hand instead of the bow, but realized with shock and bewilderment that the Protective Spiritual Qi around him was beginning to freeze as well – something that should not be possible as Spiritual Qi itself should not be vulnerable to freezing.

And as his eyes, filled with a dumbfounded look, met with icy turquoise eyes behind the ice mask, even the flow of Spiritual Qi inside him stagnated and became hard to move, and then to his utter horror, patches of ice began appearing on the surface of his Soul Sea as it began to freeze.

This sensation shook him to the core as he suddenly felt completely powerless in front of his horrifying opponent he couldn’t even really comprehend.

“Really, what a racket”, another calm voice resounded, this time with slight amusement, as a masked man appeared next to the masked beauty.

“W-who are you two?! Wha-…”, Jian Hao was visibly shaken by suddenly being rendered so powerless and deep fear appeared in his eyes, but at the same time confused at the sudden successive appearances of mysterious strangers.

“You heard the lady. It’s not yours to receive young man”, the masked man spoke with a chuckle, and added in a mutter as he half-turned a side-glance to the glowing Seed of the Dao that now went down to only 1 meter above Jian Yu’s head that already tilted a bit back to look upward, preparing to receive it into his forehead, “Nor is it that big of a deal for all this ruckus…”

“Not that big of a deal? Isn’t it an opportunity bestowed by Heavenly Daos?”, Xue Bing asked in her usual icy tone in which only Wu Long saw curiosity.

“It is. And to be precise, usually even I would think it’s rare and precious, but recently… I guess you’ll understand better if I just say this…”, Wu Long leaned in to her ear, acting a bit flirty and completely disregarding either Jian Hao standing in front of them, or the overall commotion happening around them, whispered, “…it’s worth about 5 hours of good uninterrupted meditation in Mingyu’s field at her current level”

The beauty’s eyes widened behind the makeshift ice mask she made in the spur of the moment, as she once again realized and re-confirmed just how broken their sense of value has become because they either didn’t have points of reference, or those points of reference were very skewed.

This incredibly precious opportunity of Heaven and Earth, one sought by so many cultivators with blinding, maddening greed, willing to fight and kill for it, one so rare it was hard to experience it even once in a lifetime for most, was simply around 5 hours of meditation they all casually received from Luo Mingyu who acted as if she was just ‘giving them a bit of support’.

Xue Bing herself, just she alone, spent hundreds of hours in that Dao Intent Field.